I write this post from an office in Stockholm. Outside the skies are gray, the air is cool, and everything is quiet and clean. The office itself is typically Swedish, light colored wood furniture, white board walls, a simple spare aesthetic. The Swedish aesthetic is reflected in one of Sweden's best known brands, the assemble-it-yourself furniture company IKEA.
The Swedes are an interesting people. They are quite international in their outlook, and Stockholm is bustling with people of all colors of skin. Most of them speak English well.
They are also early adopters of technology, as are many other Scandinavians, which is perhaps why the mobile phone giants Nokia and Ericsson occupy this small corner of the world. Some of Ericsson's buildings can be seen from my window. These plain, warehouse style buildings are fitted luxuriously inside, including with indoor swimming pools.
The Swedes have a very open and flat corporate structure. They are proud of the fact that you can pick up the phone and call the CEO of any company and he will probably answer the phone himself or herself and talk to you without arrogance. There is a whiff of socialism in the air, also reflected in the astronomically high tax rates.
The Swedes are famous for the way they make decisions. In the Swedish style of management, everything is consensus driven. There is little place for individual egos or centers of power. "In another country, I can get an okay from the CEO and the deal is done," lamented a Swede at lunch today. "Here I have to talk to the entire management team till they all agree." It is considered all right to have many meetings without a decision. The upside is that when a decision is taken, the consensus is very solid and things move quickly.
The Swedes are known for their love of coffee, which helps them fill up the time in the winter when there is hardly any daylight. They also laugh at themselves for their little good-natured eccentricities, like a love of the "take a number and wait" systems at every Swedish service office.
12 comments:
Respected Sir,
Thank you for sharing some of Swedish ettiquetes. It was gud to know about Swedes and Stockholm.
Regards
Proton shraddha
Respected Sir,
I like to know about other country's people and their like or dislike. Thanks for giving information about Swedes and please give more information about another country in future.
Warm Regards Sir,
Reading the article i realised that every country has its own ettiquetes which have positives as well as negatives but a country develops its image by capitalizing on its positive side and negating the negative side to least.It was wonderful to know about their culture which may be helpful for us in our future. We would be able to communicate in a better manner with a Swedes person.
With Regards
Proton Nikhil Sukhlecha
Fall09
Dear Sir,
It was great insight about Swedish people. Thanks for sharing valuable thoughts.
Regards
Proton Ashok Kumar
Sir,
Wish you have happy time in Sweden.
Besides Sweden what i learn is how to introduce any place & share experience with the world. The one who'll read this post will carry the same image of Sweden as imposed by you. It feels like i saw Sweden between the lines of your post.
Respected Sir,
Thanks for enlightening about such a great and prosperous country and I found it interesting that Sweden CEO's are liberal and the management style is consensus driven.
After reading this post I also found some facts about Sweden-
Third largest country in the EU.
Stockholm is its capital and largest city in the country.
One of the best education system in the world.
Riksdag assembly hall of Stockholm is very beautiful.
Warm regards,
Priyanka Gupta
Fall'08
Dear Sir,
This blog is helpful for me in understanding the basic things about Sweden wnich I donot found in any book.
Thank You so much for sharing your experience
Guys, guys! The dangerous about Dr Fuloria is you call him up for some work, and he tells you "Yaar main zara Sweden ja raha hoon, aa ke milta hoon". What's that? Sweden? Or Karol Bagh?
If I were to ever go to Sweden, I would blog for a week in advance about it till the whole world would know :-))
Thank you Sir for sharing these wonderful informations on Swiden and the culture over there.
thank you sir for sharing sweden's interesting things like sweden's corporate culture, i never thought that a CEO can be that much humbel. it's really a interesting city, (today i read sweden carbon tax is euro 108 per tonne of co2).
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your wonderful insights about the Swedish people.
Sweden is an Scandinavian country .
Talking about Scandinavia, the term Scandinavia is used unambiguously to refer only to Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which share a mutually intelligible language (a dialect continuum), ethnic composition and have close cultural and historic bonds, to a degree that Scandinavians may be considered one people.
Comparing the Swedish management style with Indian, as we all know that in Sweden there are no barriers in communication at any on the level in an organization, India on the other hand, has many.We were on a tour for the placements and there we were easily able to find these barriers, in a way that no one was ready to talk.
Talking about various brands that have made their international presence like IKEA, Oriflame, Ericsson and many others.
IKEA is a furniture retailer which provides the furniture of typically the Scandinavian style. It has a vast geographical presence. IKEA is not only a retailer, but also maintains the control of the product design to ensure the integrity of its unique image. The company, however, does not manufacture, relying instead on a host of long-term suppliers who ensure efficient, geographically dispersed production. (A good example how the operation management is done globally).
The other Sweden brad which comes to my mind is Oriflame, manufacturer of the natural Swedish cosmetics. This company right from the beginning chosen a path of "Chain marketing", "Catalog marketing" and had a great success. The cosmetics of Oriflame are very natural and you can feel this from their natural fragrances.
It is really interesting to know about how the work is done in different countries, and for managers of today, it is must to understand.
Thanks & Regards
Dear Sir,
After watching the link given by you for the IKEA website, I am really impressed. It is very interesting to watch the degree of customization that these multinational organizations have adopted. Other few examples which comes to my mind are Nokia, Oriflame, Dell etc.
We always talk about how different countries differ in their management style, but we always forget that, taken on a broader perspective the "principles of management" are the same.
When I was there at Kota, preparing for IIT exam, then I had a discussion with my professor, as I was not understanding that if there is no gravity in the outer space how can Newton's gravitational principles apply. Then my professor said, its not that the Newton's laws do not apply here; its just that their values are different.
I can relate this examples everywhere in management.
Thanks & Regards
Mayank Umraode
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